Friday, July 25, 2008

Many pastors fear that the practice of church discipline will drive peopleaway and ruin their churches. It will drive away those who love their sin, butattract those who hate it and seek repentance and righteousness.

1 comments:

Geoff, you are correct. We live in an era where pragmatism seems to dictate much our behavior....what will happen of we really engage in church discipline? Will numbers fall off? Will we get sued?

the proper questions is..what does God say in His inerrant Word.

The Pastor and Elders of any biblical church should work together to do what is right before God and trust Him with the results.

To be sure, church discipline must be heavily laced with love, patience, prayer, discernment and encouragement. After all, the goal is restoration, not simply booting people out. But purity in Christ's church is very important.

Many times people simply say "I'm outta here..you can't discipline me...I am leaving." But, if membership is really treated with the importance it deserves, and accountability on everyone's part is acknowledged, there should be a better outcome.

Historically, church discipline has been one of 3 marks of the church, along with proper preaching of God's Word and proper administration of the ordinances.